


Broadening Horizons

by youcouldmakealife



Series: Impaired Judgment (and other excuses) [61]
Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-22 20:06:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16604639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youcouldmakealife/pseuds/youcouldmakealife
Summary: You still at home?Jared texts.ya y?Bryce texts back, then,u suggestin sumthin?followed by a winky face.Sitting beside a sixteen year old, don’t be gross., Jared texts.lol, Bryce texts back, which, well. Lol indeed, considering.





	Broadening Horizons

It’s not that Jared doesn’t have faith that Chaz will be cool about shit with Bryce, because obviously he’s going to be cool with Bryce, but, well —

Jared’s kind of concerned Bryce won’t be cool with Chaz. Or, like, that he’ll start looking for signs that aren’t there that Chaz is uncomfortable, or avoid him because it’s hard to be around someone who knows, or something like that. They didn’t plan the timing right: before Chaz and Bryce are even in the same place, Jared’s heading out of town, and he can’t do the same level of damage control from hundreds of kilometres away as he can from home.

“Dude,” Jerzy says. “Quit fidgeting.”

“I’m not,” Jared says.

“Phones make noise when you get texts, you don’t have to keep checking it, you’ll know,” Jerzy says.

Dude has a lot of nerve for a fucking sixteen year old, especially one named after a fucking piece of equipment. A piece of equipment spelled wrong, to boot.

“Be quiet, Shin Pad,” Jared mutters.

“What?” Jerzy says.

“You heard me, Helmet,” Jared says.

“Oh shit,” Braeden says, turning around in his seat. “Fuck, that’s awesome.”

“What are you even talking about?” Jerzy whines.

“Why didn’t we think of that before?” Braeden says. 

How did they not make that connection? It’s not even a leap, it’s a shuffle step. The Hitmen were clearly lost without Jared. 

“Seriously guys,” Jerzy says.

“Shut it, Jockstrap,” Braeden says, then legit cackles.

Jared checks his phone again once Braeden’s run through chirping Jerzy with their equipment list — no texts — and Jerzy huffs, but doesn’t say anything this time.

It’s stupid to keep checking for an update — Bryce is still at home, Jared’s pretty sure. They had optional practice, but Bryce’s shoulder has been bugging him a little, so the trainers told him to rest it instead. _You still at home?_ Jared texts.

 _ya y?_ Bryce texts back, then, _u suggestin sumthin?_ followed by a winky face.

 _Sitting beside a sixteen year old, don’t be gross._ , Jared texts.

 _lol_ , Bryce texts back, which, well. Lol indeed, considering.

 _How’s your shoulder?_ Jared texts him, and Bryce sends three separate paragraph long texts bitching about it in reply. Jared is a little frightened to find out what Bryce with the flu might look like. He loves him, but possibly not enough not to kill him if he goes full on baby about it, all ‘my temperature is elevated one degree, I must be dying, and will certainly act like I am.’

Though to be fair to him, he may be skipping a practice, but that was at the trainers’ urging. Jared has zero doubt he’ll be in the lineup tomorrow, and he also doubts anyone who doesn’t already know Bryce is hurting will be able to tell by his play. So maybe it’d be ‘Jared, I’m _dying_ — wait, never mind, I have to go play a game.’

 _There are ice packs in the freezer, use them_ , Jared texts, and tilts his phone away from Jerzy to receive a picture of Bryce’s shoulder with an ice pack already on it.

 _Don’t hurt your other shoulder taking selfies_ , Jared texts, and the next selfie is Bryce’s middle finger.

Jared sends back a kissy face — emoji, not selfie, the second one might get Jerzy too interested in who the hell he’s texting — and tucks his phone away. He has faith that things with Bryce and Chaz will go okay, so it’s ridiculous to dwell on it.

*

 _Have you talked to Bryce yet?_ Jared texts Chaz that night after his game — OT loss, which sucked, but at least they got a point out of it — because he hasn’t heard from either of them beyond a _sux :(_ from Bryce, and not dwelling on it is going very poorly.

 _Nah he wasn’t at practice this mornin. He ok?_ Chaz asks. _They said he was dealing with something upper body and we’re prob fucked against the nucks tmrw without him_.

 _Just tweaked something, he’ll be good to go_ , Jared says. _And have faith in your damn team, Chaz._

 _He’s literally involved in half our offence_ , Chaz says, and that’s — honestly true so far this season. Jared doubts it’ll stay that way — Bryce can’t maintain the pace he’s at, just like, realistically, and the other lines are eventually going to get past the weird scoring drought they’ve been on lately — but for now, seeing Bryce’s name on the injured list, even day-to-day, would provoke like, terror from Flames fans.

And if Chaz knows that, and Jared knows that, Bryce _definitely_ knows that.

 _You’re actually good to go for tomorrow, right?_ Jared texts Bryce. _Your shoulder’s not sprained or something?_

Bryce shoots him a thumbs up, and Jared will just have to trust it.

*

The Hitmen aren’t playing that night, and Sam is totally hogging their TV to watch some stupid movie from the eighties, so Jared, for the first time in his entire life, heads to a bar by himself to watch the Flames game. He feels like he’s sneaking around or something as he leaves the hotel, even though curfew is at ten, and the place is only a block away, so even if it goes to OT, a shootout, he’s not going to be late.

He kind of wishes Chaz was still on the team so he could hang out and watch the game with him, but then, Chaz didn’t know about them last year. The only reason Chaz _does_ is because he’s a Flame, so Jared will have to settle for watching him play as well.

Jared orders a glass of water and the healthiest thing on the menu — unfortunately, it’s still pretty bad for him — and then, when he finishes those and has his water refilled, orders a gin and tonic to sip slowly, because the bartender’s giving him a look, all ‘you’re a loafer’, and gin and tonics are supposed to be healthy, as far as like, alcoholic beverages go. Healthy-ish?

They’re also _gross_ , apparently, so Jared isn’t going to have a single problem making his last until the end of the game.

It is, as Jared expected, absolutely impossible to tell Bryce’s shoulder is bugging him. Like, Jared literally helped him ice it before he left town, and he still forgets, watching him. 

There’s something so effortless about the way he plays. Jared knows how much effort there is behind it, how many hours Bryce puts into strength and conditioning, how shrewd he is, talking over hockey plays, that the stuff that looks like pure instinct, skill, is muscle memory from working his ass off, lightning quick assessments using his baller hockey IQ. Still sometimes looks kind of like magic, watching him play.

It’s pretty great, having a boyfriend who gives you a hockey boner on top of a literal boner.

The Flames win it, though it looked pretty dicey in the third, blowing their two goal lead and only scoring the game-winner with three minutes left — Casterley, from Bryce, who didn’t take the shot for once, which seemed like a pretty damn good decision when Casterley went top shelf with it — and Jared sends Bryce the usual congratulations text, with maybe a little extra about how fucking hot he played, because _damn_ , and pays for his too greasy food and mostly untouched gin and tonic before heading back to the hotel.

Sam’s asleep, which is _ridiculous_. It isn’t even ten, what eighteen year old’s asleep? Sam Hiebert, everyone. Gregory and Braeden let Jared chill in their room, and he sits on the bed by the door with one eye on the game of Mario Kart they’ve got going, one eye on his phone, which hasn’t buzzed yet.

Jared like. Frets a little. Okay, maybe a lot. He told himself he wouldn’t, but Chaz and Bryce like, definitely would have interacted today — hell, they cellied together during the second when Chaz was late off on a line change gone very right, one that sprung Casterley for his first of the game — and Jared’s wondering if it went okay, if Chaz is still waiting for Bryce to come to him, or he’s said something — fuck, hopefully not in front of the team, or where anyone could hear, he said he wouldn’t but maybe he forgot, and Bryce would be mortified, but maybe —

“You want in?” Braeden asks after Gregory beats him, and honestly, Jared’s currently distracted, irritable company it’s best not to subject his liney to, so he fakes a yawn, bowing out and going back to his own room, where at least he won’t get on anyone’s nerves. Well, other than his own. He’s pretty annoying right now, objectively.

 _grabbing some drinks with bj, u jelly?_ Chaz texts while Jared tries to watch the news over Sam’s snoring — thankfully, once he’s out he’s out, so Jared doesn’t have to tiptoe around or anything. Jared likes having Sam as a roommate way more than he liked sharing with Tristyn — he’s got a normally spelled name, he doesn’t talk in his sleep, he isn’t like, a shitty person — but the snoring is a killer, and it’s worse because he goes to bed early enough on non-game nights Jared can’t defend himself by falling asleep first. Headphones, once again his saviour. Maybe next year he’ll get — but he won’t be on the Hitmen next year. Fuck, he _hopes_ he’s not on the Hitmen next year, even if that meant he could still live with Bryce.

 _Hey, who said you can call him BJ, that’s my BJ_ , Jared texts. It comes out sounding joking he thinks? Which is good, because it is. He’s only, like, a little grumpy because he is, in fact, kind of jealous. Here he is, stuck in freaking small town Alberta — okay, small city Alberta, but still — listening to his roommate snore while his boyfriend and his friend go drinking without him after beating the damn Canucks. It’s not fair. Like, obviously it’s a huge relief, it’s something he’s been worrying about since he left town, it’s _great_ they’re getting drinks, but. Not fair.

 _groooosss_ , Chaz texts.

 _Didn’t mean it that way you baby_ , Jared texts.

 _didnt mean it romantic stylz?_ Chaz texts back.

 _Well okay yes_ , Jared texts. _Is it a requirement for someone with a Z in their name to replace normal letters with Z?_ he adds. He wonders if Jerzy does it with all the equipment. Zhin pad. Jockztrap.

 _fuck off im not talking to u anymore_ , Chaz texts. _I like bj better_.

 _Ouch_ , Jared texts, but he feels pretty good about it, actually. _Zend him home in one pieze_. And hopefully not too drunk, but Jared like, trusts Chaz more than anyone else on the Flames for that, including Bryce, so. 

_fuck off_ , Chaz sends again, but it’s accompanied by a laughing emoji, because Jared is hilarious.

Jared falls asleep in front of the news, wakes up with his phone beside his cheek, some morning show blaring and Sam still sleeping, the fuck. Jared turns it off, checks his phone, finding a text from Chaz sent past one, saying _went well if you were worried tho apparently bj doesn’t like being called a fuckboy_ , which makes Jared snort, try to picture Bryce’s face when Chaz called him out.

 _How did stealing my friend go?_ Jared texts Bryce before getting in the shower, and Bryce texts him back as he’s finishing breakfast, Sam yawning across from him, like he didn’t get at least ten hours of sleep. 

_we can share_ , Bryce texts, then, _im not a fuckboy_ , and Jared can practically see the pout.

 _You just play one on TV_ , Jared texts back, which is like — weirdly true, honestly. Not so much with the media, he just pulls the petulant jerk with them, but like, even then, no one would believe Bryce was the kind of dude who wouldn’t hook up with him for literal weeks at first because he didn’t want to like, suck, as if Jared had a frame of reference, and didn’t want Jared to think he didn’t genuinely, you know, _like_ him. 

The kind of dude who keeps saying he wants their first time, as it were, to be special, and Jared knows some of that was saying that because he isn’t ready for it, is anxious about it, but he’s pretty sure that if Bryce _is_ ever ready — and Jared’s not waiting or anything, he meant it when he said their sex life was fucking awesome and he didn’t want to do anything Bryce wasn’t comfortable with — if Bryce does want to, he’ll still probably insist on it being special, because he’s a dork.

 _Things with Chaz went okay though?_ Jared asks. _Even though he called you out on acting like a fuckboy?_

 _im NOT a fuckboy_ , Bryce texts, then, _ya it was good. ur rite about him being good ppl_

 _Good_ , Jared texts, happiness warring with like, okay, maybe the jealousy is still kind of there a little.

 _next time the three of us shud hang out_ , Bryce says.

 _That’d be cool_ , Jared says, and in the end, just the happiness lingers through the day. 

Well, except when the Hitmen lose that night. That sucks pretty hard.

 _u played like a boss, team lost that shit despite u_ , Bryce texts, and Jared thumbs his phone every time his screen starts to dim, keeps looking at it for awhile, because he’s homesick, like he hasn’t been away all of three days, and Sam’s snoring louder than ever, and he _did_ play like a boss, he had a two goal game and they still fucking lost in regulation. And Bryce knows that, probably watched it, the same way Jared watched him, the thread that holds tight whenever one of them leaves.

 _I did, didn’t I?_ Jared texts back, and grins when Bryce, within seconds, replies with _duh_.


End file.
